Cruising Through Cuisine

The last half of Intermediate Cuisine went by ridiculously fast and manifested itself into a giant blur of stress with the cheating fiasco and having to retake the written exam, which --in hindsight-- actually ended up working out in my favor.  I don't know whether it was the extra study time or the fact that what I studied was actually on the written exam (part deux), but I ended up with a 94!  I can say with 100% certainty that a 94 is at least 30 points higher than what I would have scored on the first exam, so I was pretty excited.

Superior is well underway, but I don't want to skip over anything from the past couple of weeks.  I've sequestered myself in my apartment with a bottle glass of wine (and perhaps a few episodes of Glee), and I'll be spending the rest of the evening trying to get y'all up to speed on the happenings this side of the pond. 

I left off somewhere around Valentine's Day, and the dish below is appropriately from the Champagne region of France --- sole fillet and salmon paupiettes with a Champagne butter sauce --- to be exact.  I can't take credit for the plating on this one because as I was drizzling the sauce on my plate, the chef grabbed a clean plate, ran over, and proceeded to re-plate my entire dish.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't really pissed off because he didn't even let me finish...however, I've heard from other people that this particular chef has been known to do that a time or two.  I guess I shouldn't take it too personally, but I was still pretty annoyed.

All I remember about the the braised stuffed cabbage (pictured below) is:
a.  I got a fist pump from the chef for my sauce
b.  It was delicious
c.  I ate it for lunch and dinner at least 3 days in a row

This dish was inspired by the French Riviera, and it is puff pastry with marinated sea bass and a virgin vinaigrette with basil -- très delicious!

Rabbit is a loved staple in French Cuisine, but it is quite possibly the most hated animal at Le Cordon Bleu.  The one and only cuisine practical I skipped during Basic was the rabbit dish because it was the Monday after I was mugged, and I wasn't in the frame of mind to hack up the poor little animal.  I wasn't able to escape in Intermediate, and I had to face the rabbit head on (literally).

The chef rocking the rabbit like a baby...

I can't really explain why rabbit dishes seem so complicated, but for whatever reason, they are.  Three tedious hours later, I had conquered the dreaded rabbit.

Next up, we have the classical French dish:  Bouillabaisse!  Bouillabaisse is a fish stew from the Provence region made with a few different types of fish and saffron, and it is INCREDIBLE!  We had to start out the practical filleting these two beauties below:

Meet John Dory (saint-pierre in French):

 and a Mediterranean scorpion fish:

(thanks to Nicole for the pictures!)

The practical was looooong and lots of work, but totally worth it in the end.

Fish, potatoes, and saffron - oh my!

This was the point during the session when everything started to get a little hazy.  It was right in the middle of all of the drama outside of the kitchen.  Inside the kitchen, however, things were going really well.  I felt like I was in a good place, and I was very pleased with my dishes.

Traditional white bean stew AKA Chili...French style

Monkfish wrapped in bacon with braised artichokes

Pan-fried steak, Madeira sauce with diced truffles, and potatoes fried in goose fat

Pike-perch quenelles in a crawfish sauce

My smooth-sailing attitude came to a screeching halt after the crawfish dish picture above.  During the next practical, we made a lamb fillet stuffed with dates and rosemary served with couscous and dried fruit.  Easy enough, right?  At this point we had worked with our fair share of lamb, and you don't even have to cook cook couscous.  This dish should be pretty difficult to screw up, right?  WRONG!

Don't let the picture fool you.  It was a complete catastrophe (remember? French style: cat-a-stroff).  How do I know it was so terrible?  Well....the chef told me.  He critiqued everything on my plate and told me it was wrong.  Lamb? Raw.  Couscous? Dense.  Jus? Salty.  I believe he said something along the lines of, "You should just go cry now because everything is bad."  One girl in the class asked him if she would have passed had this been the dish on the final.  He looked around the room and said everyone did fine, then looked directly at me and said, "Except you.  You wouldn't have passed."  Fab-u-lous! Just what you want to hear a few short days away from the exam.  I don't get as worked up about their criticism anymore, so I couldn't help but just laugh hope to do better next time.

The demo associated with the lamb dish was very interesting because they brought in a butcher to show us how lamb goes from this:

To this:

Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, the next practical went much better.  I didn't have to worry about screwing everything up on the plate because, well, there wasn't a plate!

Ignore the pink-ish tint to the crust.  The bowl that was used to combine the ingredients apparently had red food coloring in it...

We made sea bass in a salt crust, and it was SO DELICIOUS!  Seriously, it was fairly easy and the fish was really moist and flavorful --- I will definitely be making this again. 

This next dish may be my favorite of the semester...probably because it had risotto which I have been craving for months, but all of it was very, very tasty! 

Veal tenderloin with a creamy risotto, mushroom duxelle, and asparagus sauce

And finally, we rounded out the session with a pan-friend cod steak, Flemish-style red cabbage, and a beer jus vinaigrette.  The beer jus vinaigrette was a little strange...probably because whatever beer we used was pretty terrible, but it worked out well in the end.

For the last demo, the chef made a pork tenderloin stew cooked in a dough-seal cocotte, and it was phenomenal!  This is another dish I'll be trying when I get home.

That's the end of Intermediate Cuisine!  Next up?  Exams and graduation!

- a tout à l’heure!

The Sweet Life

Well, well, well...if I haven't done it --- again!  No matter how much I try and plan everything out, I still somehow manage to fall waaaaaaaay behind on posting.  C'est la vie.

Things have been going very well lately.  Bright blue skies, cool breezes, and a warm sun have thawed out ol' Paris from the dark, frigid, depressing winter.  Spring is in the air, my friends!  Hooray!  Nice weather just makes life easier.

I graduated from Intermediate last week, had a quick vacation with Mom, then jumped right into Superior yesterday.  MUCH more to come on all of that later!

As I was searching through the 6,500 pictures on my computer trying to sort out where I should begin with the updates, I realized that I hadn't mentioned anything about pastry in quite a while.  Intermediate pastry has focused a great deal on chocolate, mousses, and creams, which as I have learned over the past 3 months, can be pretty tricky... 

The first cake is called, well, Opera, as the writing on the top indicates.  It is basically a tiramisu - French style -- with several tiny layers of sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, chocolate ganache, and coffee butter cream.  Does it get any better than that?  Unlike tiramisu, however, it is so incredibly rich that even a chocoholic like myself could only handle a few bites in one sitting.  You can still find them in pastry shops around Paris, but they are often displayed as only individual portions rather than whole cakes.

We had to write Opera on the top of the cake in chocolate.  A LOT harder than it looks, folks.  This was just practice, though, because that was actually the technical portion of our final exam.  As always, more to come on that later.

Next up, we have a Three Chocolate Bavarian Cream cake.

It wasn't too difficult, although a blind person could have done a better job with the amoeba thing on top.  I tried to channel my inner Picasso, but it just didn't really work out.  The entire thing was also practically liquid when I was finished because the gelatin did not have a chance to freeze and set properly in the Bavarian cream.  This cake made it as far as the trash can. 

We spent a few lessons on tempering milk and dark chocolate to prime us for the wonderful world of chocolate that we will face in Superior.   Great!  (Insert sarcastic tone here)

In order to work with and mold chocolate, you must run it through a particular temperature curve so that it is in it's liquid form, the molecules are heated to de-crystallize, then cooled to recrystallize, then re-heated, then harden to become the beautifully shiny, brittle chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hand.  Got it?  Yeah, neither do I.  Superior will be fun!

This is what the milk chocolate should have looked like after we ran it through the temperature curve...

Gorgeous, right??  I didn't even take a picture of mine.  My first catastrophe (pronounced the French way...think: cat-a-stroff) of the session.  Literally.  That's what the chef said to me.  At least it was with a smile on his face...so he was laughing with me...or at me.

Fortunately, I was able to redeem myself with the dark chocolate.  I vowed not to let it get the best of me AGAIN, and I prevailed!  We ended up having the same chef that we had for milk chocolate, so I was able to show him that I wasn't a complete failure in the kitchen.  He kept telling me it must have been a fluke that they turned out so well (with a smile on his face), but then he gave me lots of très biens, so it all worked out in the end. 

Voilà!

We had to temper more milk chocolate (my arch nemesis) in the next cake, appropriately named Heavenly Chocolate. 

SO DELICIOUS!

The chocolate part actually turned out well.  Disregard the crazy piping job on top.  How hard is it to pipe a straight line?!  Apparently pretty difficult!

This cake is called Plaisir (or pleasure in English).  I don't really remember too much about it except that I think it sat in my freezer for a week or so until I threw it away.  It was also one of the choices on the exam, and I am really glad that I didn't get it.  

For some reason we spent a lesson on savory petits fours.  I'm not sure why, but here they are!

Meet my second arch nemesis: Wild Strawberry and Vanilla Treasure.  Look at all of the pretty Treasures that the chef made in demo.

If he can make 8 cakes in 2.5 hours, then I could at least make one, right?  Wrong!  It was a disaster!

Things that went awry with my Treasure:

1. The vanilla Chiboust cream was literally liquid as I was trying to spread it on the cake.  In case you were wondering, the last thing you want is for it to be liquid.  It should be thick and fairly firm.  In fact, it was so liquid that when I had to flame it and then put the glaze on, it was literally sliding down the dome in the center.  If you look at the edges closely, you can see the pools of cream.
2.  While I was browning the cream with the torch, I set my cake on fire...as illustrated with the appetizing, charred goodness on the rim.
3. I. SET.MY.CAKE.ON.FIRE!  I feel like that deserves more recognition.  There were literally flames that I had to blow out.  I can't even make this stuff up.

Fortunately the chef was really nice and understanding and told me that typically Chiboust cream is made with an Italian meringue which is much stiffer than a French meringue (which we used), so he could see why it turned out the way it did.  As for the flames?  Well, he had no excuse for that.  

The next cake went much smoother.  It was a chestnut mousse cake, and we got to play with a chocolate gun!

I loved the cake below because it combined practically everything we have learned thus far.  We had to make three different types of cakes, passion fruit cream, raspberry mousse, and a raspberry glaze.  It was a lot of fun to make it and then piece everything together!

Next, we made a walnut cake, which was pretty simple (walnuts plus caramel), but SO GOOD!  I think I ate the entire thing...

The chef didn't appreciate the caramel designs or the glaze on the top.  My artistic ability strikes again.

We spent the next two lessons on the epitome of French cakes: Croquembouche.  I remember when I was in Basic and seeing the masterpieces that the Intermediate pastry students made and I couldn't WAIT to try it!  These cakes are very traditional and often served at French weddings and other formal functions.

This is what the chef threw together during demo.  Ours wasn't quite as elaborate. 

 We started with a practical on the base.

 And then finished the next practical with the top and the assembly.

There was no way I was going to be able to walk home with this beast, so I left it downstairs for the hoards of hungry students.  After I changed and got ready to leave, I noticed my Croquembouche wasn't sitting on the table with all of the others.  I was a little confused until I turned around and saw a girl taking the whole thing home!  I felt quite flattered that out of all of the cakes on the table, she chose mine!  I hope it tasted okay...

I had been waiting for the last practical of Intermediate since I got the schedule at the beginning of the session.  Why, you ask?  Because it was BAGUETTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was heavenly!  As soon as they came out of the oven, someone in class pulled out a packet of butter and we all stood around eating our fresh, hot, incredible baguettes!

The last demo of the session is a chance for us to sit back, relax, and enjoy what the chef makes since our last practical is the final exam.  To end Intermediate pastry, the chef made a dessert called a Praline Millefeuille, and let me tell you, it was absolutely incredible.

Millefeuille literally means a thousand sheets, and this was many layers of puff pastry, chocolate praline crisp, and mousseline praline cream.  It was really messy to eat, but TOTALLY worth every bite. 

So there you have it!  Intermediate pastry is officially over.  Well, until the final, that is...but more to come on that later. 

- a tout à l’heure!

When I Grow Up

I had my written cuisine exam today.  I should be excited because my pastry exam is complete (with a 98 under my belt...hooray!), and although the cuisine exam was MUCH harder, it's finished, and that's reason enough to celebrate, right?  Wrong.  Thanks to a handful of unidentified cheaters in my class, the director of the school to faced a firing squad of 62 tired, stressed, and angry culinary students to announce that the test we took this morning was null and void, and we all must take another exam on Wednesday.  Is that the most logical solution?  Really?  The best part is, aside from the one girl they identified, EVERYONE has to retake the test (cheaters included).  So, in short, their solution is to punish the honest folks out there who actually took the time to study, and the cheaters won't face any serious repercussions.  That makes total sense.  Typical French.  

Ugh, I could complain as much as I want, but it isn't going to change.  So, rather than enjoying my weekend out exploring Paris (and LOVING the blue skies that we have had recently --- minus the freezing temperatures), I'll be preparing for round two...and cramming for the cuisine practical exam I have on Friday and the pastry practical exam I have next Monday.  Eek!  I suppose this gives me a chance to study more of the information that I had originally ignored...like the vast numbers of cheeses they listed in our recipe book for the 20 different regions in France.  I kept thinking, surely out of alllllll of the information we have, they would not ask where (insert random French cheese name here) came from, so I'm not going to worry about that.  Ha. Wrong.  They definitely asked the origin of (insert random French cheese name here)...and the origin of at least 5 other types.

After the announcement was made, people started voicing their opinions and discontent with other areas of the school, and let me tell you...there aren't enough hours in the day to list the issues stemming from what we expect from Le Cordon Bleu versus what is actually presented to us on a daily basis.  I have learned a lot since I started, but there is definitely room for improvement.  When I finally got home from class and was alone in my apartment, all of this drama got me thinking.  My mind wandered from why I am here again to what I want to do when I grow up.

Well, recalling why I'm here took less than 2 seconds to remember...all I need to do is look out  my front door and see this shining back at me:

I took this picture with my phone the other night after a particularly intense cuisine practical

Ah, my first friend and confidant in this foreign land so many months ago.  Not only does Monsieur Eiffel remind me how incredibly lucky I am to be here, but he also sometimes reminds me of the unfortunate circumstances that lead me to come in the first place.  Not a day goes by where I don't think about David and miss everything about him.  When I see something really beautiful or I do well in class, I hope he's somewhere raising a Coors in my honor.  On the flip-side, when things aren't going so well, I can't help but think back to that dark place and feel anger towards him.  I know it's not the right thing to do, and some shrink out there is shaking their head, but I'm still working through it.  My grief isn't something that comes along very often, and when it does, it usually requires some sort of catalyst to open the floodgates.  I can't believe almost a year and three months have gone by.  Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that I said "see ya later" after our last dinner together.  I try and channel my sadness to strength, however, and live this experience for both of us -- the good and the bad. 

As far as where I go after this?  I have no idea, and that scares the hell out of me.  Why can't the real world be as easy as it was when I was a kid?  I miss the days of thinking that being a Subway Sandwich Artist was a respectable career (no offense to any Sandwich Artists out there...I love Subway, it's just not necessarily a job for the long term...).  I had a friend in college who said that when she was little, she wanted to be a horse when she grew up.  Why is that so funny and ludicrous now?  I'm sure she was completely serious when she ran around proclaiming that to the world.  At what age do we become disillusioned and lose that ability to have (sometimes unrealistic) dreams?  Perhaps not of the farm animal persuasion, but isn't that part of the fun?  As my career search begins, it seems like the increasingly competitive job market is spearheading the dream crushing...for me anyway.  I'm trying to research as much as I can on how to penetrate a seemingly small field that I feel only slightly qualified for...in a terrible economy.  Yikes.

I feel like I am lucky enough to be living a part of my lifelong dream now, but then what next?  Hopefully (fingers crossed!!) I'll have 2 diplomas from a world renowned culinary school in a few months, but then my life is a big ol' clean slate.  For someone who likes to have a backup plan, this has me a little on edge.  Although it isn't taking away from enjoying my time here, it is something that's always in the back of my mind.  But, as I've said a million times over (and I'll probably tell myself a million times again), life happens whether you are ready or not, and sometimes it is best to just relax and ride it out.  So, yes, long story long, I am going to chill out for the time being, focus on my exams, and let whatever happens...happen!

Anyway I'm off my soapbox now.  Sorry for the lack of photographic entertainment for those of you who just tune in for the pictures, but this post is more of just a rant that I needed to get off my chest because I was too tired/cold/lazy to run out any of my frustration this afternoon.  

P.S. If y'all know of anyone looking to hire a dedicated, hard working, fresh off the boat culinary student...let me know!

- a tout à l’heure!  

The Parisian Underbelly

As the days fly by and my time in Paris rapidly decreases, I find myself trying to squeeze in as many activities into my free time as possible.  Most days I am a slave to the kitchen, but on the few days off --- where I'm not stuck inside cleaning, studying, doing laundry, or ironing --- I'm crossing off as many things as I can from my Parisian bucket list.  The most recent experience?  The Catacombs! (Insert dramatic/creepy organ music here)

A group of us decided to head over there and check it out one chilly Sunday afternoon, and it was definitely an experience.  After waiting in a loooong line with all the other curious folks, we finally made it up to the front.

We were greeted with this sign just before heading down, and a warning posted nearby that kindly suggested avoiding the Catacombs if you are a. claustrophobic or b. have a "nervous disposition".  I wasn't at all apprehensive until I read that sign, and with every step I took venturing 60 feet underground, inching closer and closer to the point of no return and further and further from fresh air, I couldn't help but panic and wonder... what is a nervous disposition and do I have one?  I don't think I do...but maybe it is something I wouldn't realize until I was stuck down there and it was too late to escape!  I continued to head down and hoped for the best.

The one-mile walk began with a little bit of history about the limestone quarries and how they became the Catacombs that we know today.  During the late 18th century, the cemeteries in the city were at capacity, and Parisians were looking for a solution to the sub-par sanitation conditions.  They decided to transfer the bones from their current locals to limestone quarries that were, at that time, outside the city limits.  Aside from the mental images of carts of recently exhumed bones being moved (at night) by chanting, cloaked priests, it wasn't too creepy...yet.  My "nervous disposition" was in check.

We wandered through one dimly lit tunnel after another...
(don't let the flash fool you...it was really dark)

 Stumbled upon 18th century limestone carvings...

And finally made it to the entrance. 

After stepping over the threshold, we were greeted with this on either side:
(Enter: lower ceilings, narrower passageways, nervous-er dispositions)  

It definitely took a few moments for me to give myself a little positive pep-talk and to get oriented with the dark, damp, and eerie surroundings.

You are obviously allowed to take pictures, but cannot use a flash.  There were a couple of times where my camera went a little crazy and the flash accidentally went off.  I promptly said a quick prayer and apologized to the bones for any disrespect.  Whoops!

We were moving along well, until I noticed that little water droplets were falling from the ceiling.  That's fine, no problem, I just tried to avoid those areas...that is, until the entire surface of the floor was slick and slippery because of the murky water + limestone dust combination.  It definitely was not the day to wear shoes with absolutely ZERO traction because one second I was upright, and the next second I was flat on the ground...with something like this staring me in the face...

It was like a staged movie fall.  My feet went right out from under me, and I felt like I flew up in the air before crash landing on the ground...dangerously close to a pile of bones.  The guard ran over to make sure I was okay, and although my comprehension of French is mediocre at best, I'm pretty sure he said something along the lines of "Be careful, it's really slippery down here".  Yeah, thanks pal, I didn't realize it.

Let me tell you, folks, I had limestone-bone-mud goo all. over. me.  I couldn't help but laugh and not think of where that water came from.  The metro ride home was really fun. 

The pictures don't do it justice.  It was literally everywhere. 

I got home and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning my wool coat, jeans, shoes, purse, and self.  It was sometime during the never ending scrubbing and multiple loads of laundry that I remembered I had a Chick-Fil-A sandwich in the freezer.  The only thing that could brighten my day.  As I was heating it up, a brilliant idea popped into my head...

1 Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich with pepper jack cheese + 1/2 French baguette = pure bliss

The best of both worlds

Tres delicious!  One bite, and my worries were washed away!

- a tout à l’heure!